Freed inmate to be retried for murder

Posted: Sunday, January 23, 2000

BEN DOBBINThe Associated Press

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Since being freed last spring after 25 years in prison, John Duval has spent weekdays sweeping the floor and filling in the appointment book at Val's, hismother's neighborhood beauty salon.

"It's not a job," said Duval, 47. "It's just something I do to keep busy and stay out of trouble."

But the joy of being on the outside after having his conviction overturned for a 1973 murder is tempered by the prospect that he might soon end up behind bars again.

Prosecutors opted to retry him, and testimony is scheduled to open Monday.

Duval concentrates hard on living each day as it comes.

"With my faith in God, I don't worry about nothing," he said. "I used to worry, but I don't no more because I know in my heart I'm in the right."

Duval and Betty Tyson, former prostitutes, got 25 years to life imprisonment in February 1974 for the strangling of Timothy Haworth, 52, a Philadelphia business consultant who left his Rochester hotel the night of May 24, 1973, apparently to look for a prostitute. Police said they believe the motive was robbery.

In the absence of physical evidence, Duval and Tyson were convicted of second-degree murder on the basis of confessions they insist were beaten out of them by a rogue detective, William Mahoney, and on the testimony of two teen-age runaways, Wayne Wright and Jon Jackson.

In 1997, Wright recanted his account, saying Mahoney terrorized him into lying. Prosecutors then came upon a buried synopsis of a police interview with Jackson in which he also denied seeing Duval or Tyson with the victim. Neither prosecutors nor defense lawyers saw the interview before.

Ruling that exculpatory evidence was wrongfully suppressed, a judge freed Tyson in May 1998 and Duval last April. While prosecutors decided not to retry Tyson - the city gave her $1.2 million in compensation - they went after Duval again. While Tyson steadfastly maintained her innocence, Duval twice admitted his guilt before a parole board.

"If you don't show remorse, they're not going to let you go," Duval explained. "I was very upset about it . . . but I didn't have outside support, anybody saying, `We're trying to get you out Johnny, just hold on.' "

Prosecutor Howard Relin has no doubt Duval took part in the slaying. Unlike the Tyson case, two detectives who interviewed Duval are still alive to testify. In addition, Relin maintained, Mahoney was not directly involved in Duval's case.

The chief detective, investigated at least 10 times for allegedly abusing suspects, resigned in 1980 after fabricating evidence in an unrelated case. He died in 1981.

Duval's retrial does not constitute double jeopardy because he did not establish in his appeal that there was prosecutorial misconduct, Relin said.

One of eight children, Duval was a rebellious teen-ager who dabbled with heroin and entered a world of prostitutes and transvestites.

"I probably would have ended up being one of Arthur Shawcross' victims," he said, referring to the 1980s prostitute serial killer.

Under his sentence, Duval had to serve a minimum of 25 years. If convicted again of second-degree murder, he would be returned to prison. He could someday be granted parole or spend the rest of his life in prison.

With his future in limbo, Duval's emotions swing between the everyday travails of adjusting to the outside world and the elation of renewing links with his family.

During a reunion with his brother's children last summer, "they called me uncle. That tore me up," said Duval, who crochets stuffed animals he sells to pay for his defense.

Two weeks ago, Duval said prosecutors offered him the assurance that he would remain free if he pleaded guilty and, in effect, gave up any chance of compensation.

"I would rather die in prison an old man," Duval said defiantly, adding that "no amount of money could give me what they took from me." DUVAL